Futuristic The Flyaway Soldier

[PopcornPie]

"What do you mean?" Nanome's heart sank, knowing the answer to her own question. She squinted in the direction Welkin faced, and her stomach sank right along with her heart. "Oh, no...this is exactly what I was talking about..."

"Look!" Sugino yelled. "A ship is approaching!"

"Well, we know what to do!" Daminigo hollered back, puffing out his chest. He waved his blaster in the air, letting the sun shine off it to form-what was in his mind-a morse code. Sugino stood parallel and did the same, while Vixiva hastily tuned her ship's communicator, cursing their luck under her breath. "IDS!" Her voice finally burst into Welkin's ship. "Don't be alarmed, we're just going to ask you about our missing soldier. If you don't know anything, we'll make sure you're telling the truth. If you have her...well, you can imagine we'll want to know everything."

"Welkin, this is all my fault!" Nanome wailed, hugging her seat. "There's nowhere to hide, they're all right over there, they know I'm on this planet..." She instinctively went for her blaster, knowing that worse was just about to come to worst.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin sighed, "I was afraid of this." he said softly. "Well, the choice is yours right now. I can land and you can face the music, I can arm the ships guns and we can go that route, or I can be out of the atmosphere of this planet before they can even get to their ships." He told her. "The hyperdrive will be warmed up and I could get us out of this system in notime." He said. He wasn't keen on getting into this heavy a fight.

 

[PopcornPie]

Nanome panted. "I-I-I'm scared..." Nanome whimpered, leaning on Welkin. "Commander's gonna kill me over this...well, maybe not, but...who knows how I'll be punished..." But Commander wasn't there. None of the ships were golden. And there was also the fact that, well, they'd come all this way to find her. And for Commander not to be there, there was a chance that they'd risked their necks escaping the same way she did. She could meet them one last time, right? "It doesn't look like Commander's there...but they'll have to...we'll have to go back to the IDS unless I can convince them to either let me go or come with me..."

"Well? Is anyone driving that ship?" Vixina interrupted them while watching Daminigo and Sugino continue to make their own signals out of the corner of her eye. "See anyone in there?" Sugino asked her brother, who leaned forward slightly, squinting.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin was surprised when she leaned on him and made sure to keep his cool. "You have to make a choice, you can ask them to stop and hope they listen, or we can leave now, either way, they're expecting a response from us and I'm getting a bit antsier," he said. He didn't like having a whole squadron to deal with nearby. He offered her the comm device, she would have to do the speaking here if she chose to.

 

[PopcornPie]

"I know..." Nanome whined, staring with guilt at the communicator. She was running from them. From the second she left the hangar, they were her enemy. But she couldn't bring herself, not at first, to simply leave them behind. There was no commander to steer them back to the IDS. She could explain...but should she?

"Are you going to land or do we have to pull you down?" Vixiva turned her ship towards them, readying some kind of cannon on the ship's top. A stun gun, designed to stop engines in their tracks, used for emergencies due to the limited ammo. There was no escape, they were only going to shoot them down themselves. So there was no choice...Nanome pressed the button on the communicator, hyperventilating, trying to rationalize what she was about to do, and what was coming. "Please don't...I'm right here. I'll tell you all everything." Tears flooded her eyes; they weren't tears of joy or relief, but tears of disappointment in herself.

"Tirides! Tirides!" Daminigo screamed into his suit's communicator. "Come quick! Nanome's alive! She just came back!" Meleiko tore towards the ship, her arms outstretched, waiting for Nanome to hop down, back to her.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Seeing them aim a weapon at the Edelweiss, Welkin took the communicator back once she'd finished. "Before we land, you're gonna take that Stun Cannon off my ship." He said before pressing a button. One of the ships weapons, a rapid-fire cannon, aimed at them. "I'd rather not hurt anyone, but I won't settle for weapons being aimed at me," he growled. "And my weapons aren't connected to the ship's engines, so you make the guess as to which one would win in this standoff."

If they turned their weapons away, he'd land the ship. Pointing his own cannon away as a sign of good faith. "You're treading on thing ice here." He told her, grabbing his personal weapons.

 

[PopcornPie]

"Wait, it's not exactly a weapon." Nanome explained weakly. "It's only supposed to freeze up the engines for a little while." But what Welkins wanted was what would have to happen. Either she'd have to stop everything, or they'd all become sedimentary rock fragments in a handful of years.

"Is he threatening us? I think he's threatening us." Sugino whimpered, tipping her weapon down. She looked towards Vixina nervously, hoping she wouldn't order them to attack. "Sir, we officially know you have Nanome." Her voice wavered as she tried to struggled to maintain her composure. "Hand her over, no harm will come to you." She saw Tirides's group wave to her out of the corner of her eye, and waved back. Then Tirides hopped into his own fighters, preparing his own stunner. "You're messing with the deadliest force in the galaxy! And it just so happens that we're very protective of our Nanome!" Nanome gulped at the mention of her name. "So give her to us, or we'll have to..." Now he was the one gulping. "...Radio in our commander for help!"

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin grit his teeth, and picked up the radio. "Yeah, I know... because I escaped the other deadly force in the galaxy and I really don't want trouble." He said. He gently touched his own ship down, but now his live weapon remained watching them. "Truce, until you all sort this madness out." He said. He would exit the ship with Nanome, and would be packing both of his very powerful and likely not legal on some systems weaponry. He looked to Nanome, "You get this situation sorted out, I'll be watching to not get shot... it isn't fun." He said.

 

[PopcornPie]

Nanome nodded sadly, carefully stepping out of the ship. She waved sheepishly, releasing a barely audible "hello".

"Nanome!" Meleiko came dashing like a mad bull, enveloping her in a tight embrace within seconds. "Oh, Nanome, what were you thinking?! Where were you even going! Did you get hurt?!...No, you aren't hurt. You're safe! Oh, Nanome!" She held the runaway soldier tight, smothering Nanome in her chest as the others gathered around her. "Thank God..." Tirides mumbled, patting her shoulder. "Seriously, what were you thinking? You should be grateful that we were able to find you at all, let alone before you got yourself killed." Nanome could barely hear their inquiries over Meleiko's joyful sobbing, and couldn't speak with her head being pressed into her chest. "So!" Mawzey stood before Welkin, letting her gun fall limp. "How'd you end up finding her?" Everyone else surrounded Nanome, giving him protective glares.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin watched the semi-happy reunion and sighed, he hadn't unholstered his weapons, just wore the powerful blaster pistol at his hip and the long blaster on his back. "I didn't, she came wandering into a bar in town looking about as lost as a person could." he said. "And don't go giving me that look, if I'd been dead set on trying to take her, I wouldn't have returned to the scene of her ship would I? I would've just launched from the city and put on full afterburner." He stated. "Would've been ready to engage the hyperdrive as soon as I exited atmosphere."

 

[PopcornPie]

"Oh, Nanome, you scared us...scared me..." Meleiko whimpered, gently stroking Nanome's cheek. "Why didn't you wait for us to come get you...you could've been killed, going off on your own like that! What would've happened if you didn't find the bar? What would've happened if you didn't find a planet at all?" At last, Nanome could answer their questions. "If there was a way for me to go off on my own without sneaking out during sleep time, I would've taken it." She explained softly, her eyes damp with remorse. "You know how I was sent to the basement?" "For being a doofus and almost getting yourself shot? Yes, we all know." Fieriba cut in. "And instead of taking your punishment like a soldier, you go be a doofus and almost get yourself shot!" "There's a reason for that..." Nanome looked away from Fieriba's intense glare. "When I was down there, I found this diary, from someone named Tyler. Nothing in it was recognizable to me. I knew I wouldn't get answers from Commander, so..." "So you deserted, scared the crap out of us, made us have to desert ourselves looking for you, and got yourself stranded on some obscure planet in the middle of nowhere! Great plan, you idiot!" Fieriba went in for a smack across her cheeks, only for Tirides to seize her arm. "That's enough! We found Nanome, let's just figure out how to get back to the mothership before we're all discovered missing!" Tikido nodded. "Yeah, we've got to find our way back before Commander finds out about this...and, Nanome, for Christ's sake..." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can you please not get so damn inspired by whatever you're reading? Leave the trailblazing to people whose ships can actually run for five minutes?" Meleiko finally let Nanome go, but kept her arm around her shoulder as Hecca scanned her for wounds.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin listened to all this happen, and sighed. "None of you realize what has happened to you, do you?" He asked them. "I have a feeling why that diary isn't familiar to her, despite her age. You all wonder why you're different than the rest of the IDF? It's because you were taken as kids and made child soldiers." he said, simply. "You were all made to fight against other humans thinking you were doing hte right thing." He said. "Not that there is a right in this war anymore."

 

[PopcornPie]

"Excuse you?!" Fieriba was first to speak up; all the others had been stunned. "We were rescued from some kind of death camp by our leaders! And who are you to decide who's right or wrong?" She bared her teeth, listening for an apology. "Fieriba, please..." Vixina sighed, slowly blinking. "Sir, nobody was kidnapped. We were, as you would say, adopted. And we're also fighting against the tyrants trying to bring our superiors to extinction. Any humans we fight are misguided." Tirides nodded. "We were taken as kids, but it was stated clearly that we were found without parents or guardians of any kind. Nanome here was simply reading too deeply into some fiction she found." Nanome let out a frustrated sigh, then climbed into her ship, where she recovered the diary, then brought it to the group. "It's not fiction! Look! It's all hand written and hand drawn and-" "Nanome, please, we're running out of time." Tirides snorted.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin didn't try to argue it, he just sighed and shook his head. "I'm someone who's been out in this world for a while." He said. "Someone who's had to fight the IDS and run from the EDF and knows that both sides use propaganda to further their goals." He said. "I think you should trust your squad mate." He added, leaning against the ramp to his ship. "You might learn something."

 

[PopcornPie]

"B-but!...But..." Nanome was still resisting her defeat, holding the diary open. Meleiko began to herd her, gently pushing her by the shoulder. "Let's just go home, Nanome. Oh, I'm so glad this crisis is over." Mawzey, however, was still interested in Welkin. "So you've gone against both sides, huh?" She tilted her head. "Interesting...I guess you're one of the people we're told to protect. But what gives you the idea that there's no right in the war anymore? You probably haven't seen the damage the EDF has done to our allies."

As she spoke, Nanome was lifted into her seat by Hecca, while Daminigo flipped the hood open. "Alright, let's see what broke this time..."

 

[Fortunate Son]

He snorted some, "No... I've seen what both sides do to planets. You all are pilots... you weren't close up. When I fought... it was always on the ground. I was in the infantry." He said, shaking his head. "Have you ever seen a once peaceful town, on a planet that didn't want to be invaded, get oblitarated by artillery strikes from both sides, depending on which side held it that day?" He asked. "Have you ever watched a family try to run away from a firefight only to get caught in the crossfire?" He walked up to the one interested in him. "Have you ever seen a civilian city get caught in the middle of a battlefield? Or had to try and drag a comrade to the nearest medic only to have his body literally fall into two pieces from the artillery shell that hit him, knowing that he had a family at home?" He sighed, and brought up a weapon he knew both sides used regularly from aircraft. "Have you ever seen... the result of a direct hit on a bomb shelter by a fuel-air bomb? A bomb that explodes and literally ignites the air around it? Seen how that, if the fire doesn't get you, then the sudden vacuum created in a confined space by one it will literally suck a person's lungs out through their throat?"

He shook his head, "I have, and I've seen both sides do it. I've seen good people get turned into monsters by a war they didn't want to be part of. And the people leading the war on both sides are willing to send millions to die just because they don't know how to end the war beyond total victory."

 

[Fortunate Son]

(That wasn't too much was it?)

 

[PopcornPie]

"Actually, I'm just out of fuel..." Nanome 's voice trailed off as Welkin began to speak. The rest of the soldiers' voices quickly followed. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't just a bargoer. He'd seen for himself what kind of things the IDS did. All this talk of families being separated at best and killed at worst, the detailed descriptions of peaceful towns going up in smoke, it just kicked Nanome's heart while it was down.

"Oh, yes, fuel bombs..." Hecca mewed, shuddering. "We've had to launch several of those...and, somehow, our enemies copied the technology..." All of them instantly had the tremendous explosion burning in their ears, with very, very few screams managing to escape.

Meleiko managed to fight the memories, stomping towards Welkin. "You think I haven't seen any of that?" She snapped, her voice chilling her companions' spines. "Don't you see how I'm the biggest in my group? And you know why? Because I'm the oldest. I've been in O-Row for as long as I can remember. So I remember every single time one of my squadron was sent down in flames, every single time they had to sacrifice themselves, every single goodbye, and every single time I've had to watch one of them die from blood loss, unable to be rescued!" Her once happy tears turned hot and bitter. "People just like Nanome, who were only trying to help but didn't have time to learn how! You don't think I don't want that to stop?!" With her anger spent, she went back to Nanome, laying her hand on her head. "You don't think I don't want to keep worrying that every breath from this girl will be her last?" She whimpered, a lump in her throat. "You think it's stupid that I went out looking for her, don't you!? She's gonna die, but I don't want it to be all alone in a backstabbing, disgusting world!"

"We've seen plenty of our own civilizations be destroyed, too." Vixiva added, significantly calmer, although just as somber. "The people we worked so hard to protect...completely up in smoke. By the likes of the EDF, and sometimes even by the likes of you." For the first time all day, her eyes froze over and narrowed.

 

[Fortunate Son]

He shook his head, "Then you know why I deserted the EDF." he said. "Because that is not the kind of world or group I want to be a part of." He said. "Let me put it this way. You and I, we all see that we're the ones that have to live with it when we go to sleep at night. We're the ones who have to carry our burdens around with us forever, for until we draw our last breath." He said. "But you know who doesn't? The leaders of this war on either side. I can admire you wanting to protect your own, but think... do you really think your Commander won't be suspect, do you really think you can cover all this up. There will be repercussions for all of you for coming out here after all." He said, shaking his head. "This war won't end... might as well go to some other part of this world... who knows... might find something that isn't as nasty."

 

[PopcornPie]

"Y-yeah..." Nanome sniffled. "Everyone probably knows I ran away by now..." Daminigo was paralyzed, his weapon falling with a quiet slosh to the marshy grass. "You're a deserter, too?" The corners of his mouth just barely tipped upwards, somewhat relieved. Tirides, however, quickly covered up that glimpse of optimism. "Daminigo, just because he's also a deserter doesn't mean he's safe to be around. You," He pointed to Welkin. "We're taught to look back on our accomplishments with pride. That's how we sleep at night. And our leaders feel just as much pain as we do."

"Yeah." Mawzey cut in. "You know we had to dismantle an enemy trading post? It was full of Zanguahi, the species Commander is a part of. She was devastated. Especially when she found a cub, and..." She fell quiet herself, regretting ever being anywhere near Commander when that cub was found.

Tikido's turn. "And every year, we hold commemorations for everyone who died." He didn't see it, but Meleiko winced, holding Nanome tighter with a little sob. "So there."

 

[Fortunate Son]

"Yeah... and I've liberated a prison camp in my time... and not one just full of soldiers either, but civilians as well. They were starved, some had been executed, others burned." he said. "We found a pit with people in it, forced to stand in their own waste and the waste of the camp... some had drowned in their own waste." He said. "Both sides commit atrocities. And maybe your commander gives a care... but you're thinking too small. I'm talking about the people above your commander, and the people above them. The Generals, Admirals, and others of higher rank who can sign an order to send a million people to their death and not even bat an eye because its an acceptable statistic." He sighed. "We can stay here and argue back and forth all day. I'm not trying to defend the EDF, it's done plenty of bad too. I'm just saying... this is what the world is like. Both sides do good, both do bad, but you make sure that your troops only see and think about the good."

 

[PopcornPie]

"So you're the one who..." For once in her life, Fieriba had mixed feelings. Several soldiers were able to come home that day...but so were countless enemies. "Okay, we do not do...that to them. We teach them our ways. And we recharge them so they're able to fight better than ever. It sounds cheesy, but it's what happens." She shrugged, watching Hecca open his mouth. "We're in war. War brings sacrifices." He stated plainly, bravely looking Welkin in the eye. "Our superiors do care, they make sure we have the resources to keep sacrifices as minimal as possible...Though, if you're right about anything, it's that it doesn't help very much..." Nanome hopped down from her ship, struggling to process anything she'd heard. "Their own waste?" She gulped. "That's something Commander would only threaten to do!" She looked towards Tirides with terror clouding up her eyes. "That must be why our soldiers came back in such poor health!" Tirides said nothing, lost in his thoughts. "Come to think of it, have I ever even seen our superiors in the flesh?"

 

[Fortunate Son]

He shook his head, "See... this is what I'm talking about. We sure didn't do that to our own men." he said. "The IDF made those men stand in that till they died. Maybe not the branch your from, but some group of them did it. How do I know? Because we had to shoot our way into the camp... and it sure wasn't EDF forces I was engaging that day." He said before shaking his head.

"You all can do what you want. I'm getting off this rock before your squadrons presence causes an IDF Destroyer to drop out of hyperspace and a ground invasion starts." He said. "I've already had enough blasters pointed at me." He sighed. "If I detect any of your weapons pointed at me, I'll send a pulse torpedo back at your position so fast that you won't even have time to spool up the engines on those fighters. I'm sorry you're child soldiers, and I'm sorry for the horrors you've seen." With that, he turned to start going back towards his ship. "Nanome... good luck out there."

 

[PopcornPie]

Nanome started after Welkin, her eyes misty. So...that was that? She was just...gonna go home? To be punished? With nothing answered? She looked at the other soldiers, who appeared equally saddened; but none more so than Tirides, who dragged himself up to her. "Wait." He finally said meekly. "Wait!" Just what was he going to say?! He didn't know. He felt words inside that weren't there. This man...no wonder he and Nanome met at a bar of all places. In time with his shout, lightning struck, frightening the other eight. "Not again..." Nanome moaned. Meleiko wrapped her arms around the frightened Sugoi, while Vixina looked around for a place to hide. "So...we are gonna go home now, right?" She patted Nanome on the back. "Oh, Nanome, don't take it too harshly. We really should be getting home...if we can find our way back, that is. We're just as guilty as you are of taking off without a plan."

 

[Fortunate Son]

Welkin paused when he heard that shout, his fist tightened. Don't turn around... it'll just be mroe trouble. Don't. Turn. Around! He turned around and sighed, "You all have the chance right now to learn what life can truly hold for you. To experience a freedom you won't see in the military. But you have to make that choice now, to see a life that isn't war, death, and fire." He said. "At least... not all the time. I won't act like its safe out there, that's why I carry these." He patted his blaster pistol. "But... it's not a war zone. Know that there are no second chances, if you take it... you have to take it and mean it." He said. "Any of you that want to take that chance... step forward."